Though string quartets make good Hagen impersonators, it certainly doesn't imply that you couldn't play Bob Marley. Our Jamaican rasta will simply sound less earthy and grungy. With Hagen there's no typical timing blur, crossover phase shift or energy storage to create the thicker more congealed sound of normalcy. There's no heavy-coned woofer that's hard to stop to hang over a bit. There's no wall of sound. Hagen steps out. It's rather more revealed, explicit and fleet-footed. It's a consistently bright sound with a small ~1kHz emphasis. It separates and layers like an iron chef juliennes. For the right listener, that's the allure. It's a feel more spiritualized and accelerated than material and gravitational. More air, less gravel. It kicks in and shows up at rather more subdued SPL than the heavy artillery which must be cranked before it rises fully. That's a different kind of consumption. It quite naturally drifts toward music that works best under such conditions.

Marketing guys love universal solutions. Now everyone becomes a prospective customer. We all need or at least want their thing. Anything specialized shrinks focus. Otherwise it wouldn't be special. Hagen is a very specialized affair which so happens to be more universal than expected. That simply doesn't cancel the fact that to be special—quick, unencumbered, precise, articulate, direct—must by definition make those qualities more important than welly, crunch, heft and mass. Associate the latter quad with a string quartet and you see the disconnect.

It's when we add a subwoofer that things change up. Here my dual 15" sound|kaos played overgrown single-box stand-in for Alberich's 10" pedestal. Suddenly our string quartet adds an upright bass, full drum kit and infrasonic synths. It's the full-pork version but still a string quartet at heart. That's a truly special flavour which so happens to perfectly mesh with my musical tastes and SPL requirements. Alberich2 was simply undergoing revision when this assignment inked. Hence Inès asked me to use my own subwoofers instead. With the big Swiss a proper Ripole like hers, I had the arguably perfect alternate. It's why I'm confident saying that with the Hagen and Alberich names the stuff of Teutonic legend, this gear is (cough!) well christened indeed. Decorum simply forbids anything more when I've not actually heard Voxativ's short stack yet¹, just my own take on it. But that most certainly took it; all of it!
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¹ When on September 10th Inès reported that Alberich2 would be ready that week, I asked whether I should follow up reporting on this stack while I still had both review pairs of Hagen2 on hand. "We are a bit under pressure with three upcoming autumn shows so want to resume reviews in January."

As Puss in Boots said, "how strange it was to give a cat boots. But whoa, I looked good. Through the years I've been known by many names. Diablo Gato. The Furry Lover. Chupacabra. Friskie Two-Times. And the Ginger Hit Man. But to most, I am Puss in Boots. Outlaw!"

Outlaw. It's a fitting word for Voxativ's bad boy Hagen2. After all, he does live outside the realms of convention. For an easy illustration of one difference maker, consider my customary Qualio IQ. I returned to it right after my downstairs Hagen trials to recalibrate 'domestic normalcy'. Because the Poles bring in their woofer on a 1st-order slope at 300Hz, it acts as a very effective upper-bass coupler for the Satori papyrus dipole midrange which runs wide open up to 15kHz. Larger cone surface across music's engine room was a main decider versus Hagen's 5-incher. It had the IQ sound more settled and rich, Hagen more quicksilvery and lithe. As a 3-way albeit of unconventional execution, the IQ lacks Hagen's point-source execution. Playing to this further is the IQ's dipole section and how it deliberately triggers the room's ambient field. That gave the German an edge on focus and the depth domain. Whilst the IQ is a first-tier soundstager, Hagen still upped it on image specificity and layering. It's how the same black bi-cone driver can lack a certain shove in the mid/bass transition whilst getting ahead elsewhere.

Ghosting Inès a few days to break up with Hagen, I re-installed him upstairs on the Nelson Pass monos. In this more intimate space, small-woofer lightness without ultimate reach concessions due to the sub was a welcome benefit. Disappearing the front wall by casting the virtual stage right through it was another benefit when sitting closer. And because it means lower SPL, Hagen's high resolution and across-the-board brightness became the rightness which magnified small detail at already whisper levels. In this fashion a particular job calls a certain instrument best whilst moving onto the next building site could require a different tool chest altogether.

Sonnet Pasithea ⇒ Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box II ⇒ FirstWatt SIT1 ⇒ Hagen2 ⇒ low-pass to Dynaudio 18S.

Hung over a cliff, Puss gets suggestively asked whether it's true that cats always land on all fours. "No, that's just a rumour made up by dogs." There are (meow!) many bad rumours about single-driver speakers too. They really do require an audition to experience their difference. Just be sure to pick a proper implementation. All else is too many words and hollow opinions. That's my cue. Shut up and head upstairs while I still can…